Design for operations to deliver on digital transformation
To deliver on digital transformation and improve business performance, enterprises are adopting a “design for operations” approach to software development and delivery based on intelligent automation at scale, and connecting ever-changing customer needs to automated IT infrastructure. DevOps is the set of practices that do this, enabled by software pipelines that support Continuous Delivery.
The utopia of software delivery is Zero Ops, where systems are self-healing and respond to events automatically — that is, with zero human touch. Enterprises can apply the new delivery approaches to both greenfield and legacy systems, using intelligent automation to get even more value from existing systems and to pay down technical debt, freeing up funding for digital transformation.
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Products and services pass through various stages of design evolution: from design for purpose, to design for manufacture, to design for operations. In information technology, for example, early systems such as Colossus were designed for one purpose: to decipher encrypted code. And packaged software from companies such as Oracle is a good example of designing for manufacture.
Designing for operations takes into account the end-to-end cost of delivering and using software. Good examples of companies that do this include Netflix and other software-driven services. They understand that they own the full cost of delivering their software and have optimized accordingly, using practices we now call DevOps.
The efficiencies that can be achieved with designing for operations mean companies running bespoke software (designed for purpose) and packaged software (designed for manufacture) have a maturity gap where the liability is greater than the value. If that gap can be closed, delivery can be better, faster and cheaper (no need to pick just two).
It’s essential to close that gap, because if competitors can deliver better, faster and cheaper, that puts them at an advantage. This even includes the public sector, since government departments, agencies and local authorities are all under pressure to deliver higher quality services to citizens with lower impact on taxation.
The reason we “shift left”
Underlying Bionix is Platform DXC, our end-to-end digital-generation platform for delivering and managing services. Platform DXC applies intelligence, orchestration and automation to ensure that our offerings are built for operations from Day 1. Platform DXC is the foundation for integrating DXC’s solutions, along with key partner intellectual property, and provides modular, agile, flexible services.
Watch an overview of DXC Bionix.
Bionix represents a major part of DXC’s own transformation, both technological and cultural, from waterfall development to DevOps and from IT outcomes to business outcomes. DXC has been applying DevOps, cloud-based services and lean techniques for years. Now we’ve committed our entire company, from solutions development to delivery, to adopt a DevOps mind-set. We can help your organization do the same, as well as maximize business performance and value through intelligent automation and digital-generation services delivery.
Now is the time to act. Don’t be disrupted — be the disruptor. Let us help you innovate and transform to differentiate with speed and quality. That’s DXC. That’s Digital Delivered.
Learn more at dxc.technology/bionix
About the authors
Chris Swan is vice president and chief technology officer for DXC Technology’s Global Delivery organization and a DXC Fellow. Chris leads the shift toward design for operations across the offerings families, and the use of data to drive optimization of customer transformation and service fulfillment. He was previously CTO for Global Infrastructure Services and general manager for x86 and Distributed Compute at CSC. Before that, he held CTO and director of R&D roles at Cohesive Networks, UBS, Capital SCF and Credit Suisse. See Chris’s blog and his observations in InfoQ.
Tim Henderson serves as director, Operations Engineering and Excellence, for DXC Technology’s global delivery organization. Tim leads the team responsible for the continual transformation of the company’s delivery capability, applying intelligent automation at scale to make DXC the most efficient, effective and valued corporation in the IT services industry. This multimillion dollar cultural change program, DXC BionixTM, leverages the latest thinking in data science, process optimization and leading-edge automation technologies to deliver customer outcomes and enable digital transformation for our customers.
Contributors
1. Think of a project timeline and “shifting left” the items in the timeline, such as security and testing, so they happen sooner.